Snowed In with Murder

by Auralee Wallace

  Just then the lights dimmed dramatically, then flickered on and off. All eyes turned from the window to stare at the wooden light fixture mounted in the center of the room. I jumped to my feet.

  “Where are you going?” Julie asked.

  “We have some lanterns in the closet.” I pointed behind me. “I’m just going to—”

  “But I thought you said this place had a back-up generator?”

  My feet suddenly rooted themselves to the spot. “It does. It’s just…” I stopped. I knew I had to lie. A sabotaged propane generator was not exactly what this group needed to hear right now. “It’s totally fine.” Unfortunately, I was also a terrible liar. “It’s just when I went out to check it before, I noticed it was a little bit broken.”

  “What do you mean broken?”

  “It’s nothing,” I said with what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “It’s this high-tech model, and you know how high-tech models can be.”

  “No. Tell me,” Julie asked, rising to her feet.

  “It’s old. That’s all.”

  “No, no,” Julie said, pushing her glasses up. “I meant to ask you earlier. You looked really freaked out before when you came back in from checking the generator. Why?”

  I took an involuntary step backward. “It’s nothing.”

  “What’s nothing?”

  I didn’t say anything.

  “What’s nothing?”

  I let out a shaky breath. They had a right to know. “There was a small nick,” I said, making an eensy weensy space between my thumb and forefinger, “in the tubing that connects the propane to the generator.” I quickly darted my eyes around all the faces in the room. Man, there were a lot of faces, looking at me, seeing right through me.

  “You mean,” Julie said, “like it was sabotaged?”

  I chuckled awkwardly and shook my head. “No.”

  I watched the group expression change from confused to something much, much worse.

  Julie took a step toward me. “Why didn’t you tell us this?”

  I laughed. “Come on, are you seriously asking that question?”

  Suddenly Brody jumped to his feet, sending his chair tumbling back.

  “Don’t any of you get it?”

  Ashley rushed toward him, but he put up a hand to stop her.

  “None of us are getting off this island! Ever!”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “You’re not!” He pointed at Julie. “You’re not!” The finger moved to me. “Not you!” he shouted, finger whipping to Kenny.

  “Hey,” the cameraman said, sounding peeved.

  “Dude, you’re definitely not!” Brody yelled, pointing at Chuck. “We’re all going to disappear! Just like your m—”

  “What?”

  Suddenly the power snapped off again. Fully and completely off.

  Someone let out a scream and multiple chairs scraped against the floor. Then came the angry shouts.

  “Move!”

  “Out of my way!”

  In the near darkness I could see someone lunging toward me. A second later, I was knocked into a side-table by Brody’s shoulder as he ran past me.

  “I can’t be here!”

  “Wait!” I yelled. “You can’t! The storm!”

  “I’m getting off this island,” he shouted back.

  “Brody, stop!” Ashley shouted from behind me. I think he had knocked her over too, and she was still struggling to get to her feet. “Please!”

  “It’s coming for me, man. I gotta get out of here!”

  “Stop. I have lanterns. Just calm d—”

  Brody flung the door open. Bitterly cold wind ripped through the lodge.

  “Shut the door!” Ronnie shouted, sounding annoyed. “It’s freezing in here.”

  I couldn’t let him do this. It was suicide. His clothes couldn’t protect him from this type of weather. He’d die of hypothermia if he got lost out there, and the way the snow was driving, he’d get lost for sure. I tried to follow him, but Kenny and Julie were arguing in front of me.

  “Follow him,” I heard Julie hiss.

  “It’s too dark,” Kenny said. “The camera’s barely getting any of this.”

  “It’s better than nothing.”

  “Move!” I shouted, trying to maneuver past them.

  Kenny finally pushed forward, and we all stumbled out after him onto the porch.

  With the darkness and snow, it was almost impossible to see anything, but … was that a light? Out by the trees?

  I blinked hard, and when I opened my eyes again, the only light I could see was from the camera.

  “It’s too late,” Kenny called out. “He’s already—”

  Suddenly the beam of light coming from the camera swirled violently in the air. A moment later, it was followed by a heavy—

  Thunk!

  Chapter Twenty-two

  “Kenny!” Julie screamed.

  I felt my way back around the bodies to reach into the hall closet. We needed real light now. I rummaged around the shelf above my head, articles of clothing falling on me. Where was that basket? I finally got the lip and pulled it down, only toppling a few flashlights onto my head. I grabbed the first two off of the pile on the floor and clicked them on, whirling their beams toward the door.

  Julie was already on her knees by Kenny’s side, clutching his lifeless hand. “You killed Ken—”

  “What?” I shouted, fumbling with the lights.

  “You practically pushed him out the door!”

  “Me!”

  Chuck dropped down beside Julie and put his fingers to Kenny’s neck. “He’s not dead,” he shouted over the wind. “His pulse is steady.”

  “Okay,” I shouted back. “Let’s get him inside.”

  “Weren’t you the one who said you weren’t supposed to move dead people?” Ronnie called out from the lodge’s threshold with … with Rayner’s Scotch bottle in her hand? Fabulous. I had forgotten all about it. Obviously, Ronnie hadn’t.

  I dropped to my knees by Kenny’s shoulder. “He’s not dead, and we can’t leave him out here in this storm.”

  “But it might help,” she went on. “I read you can’t die if you’re still alive and frozen.”

  “Just stop. Everyone needs to help.”

  Chuck moved down to Kenny’s legs, and Julie’s eyes met mine. “I’m sorry,” she said, glasses collecting snow. “I didn’t mean to accuse you of anything.”

  “It’s okay,” I said quickly. “Don’t worry about it.” I felt bad for her because I knew she really cared about Kenny, but it was hard to feel really bad for someone when you knew they were lying to you. “Let’s just get him inside. Everybody take a part.”

  Not surprisingly, nobody listened.

  “Ronnie get over here!”

  She took a step back into the lodge.

  “Don’t make me get the mat,” I warned. “You too, Kyle. You can help. Where’s Ashley?”

  Just as I had said the words, she appeared in the doorway, pulling her heavy jacket on while keeping hold of the flashlight I had used earlier.

  I rocked back on my heels. “Please tell me that you are just cold and you’re not thinking—”

  “I’m going after him. He needs me.”

  “Over my dead body, you are!” Ronnie shouted.

  “Whatever,” Ashley said, flipping the hood over her head. “Have another drink, Mom.”

  “Hey! In case you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of having a bad night.” Ronnie took a sloppy swig right from the bottle. “You, little liar … who lies…”

  “Getting lost in the storm is not going to help Brody’s situation,” I said trying to meet Ashley’s eyes, but she was scanning the darkness. “You don’t know the landscape; you’ll get turned around. You’ll—”

  “I know a little bit about surviving in harsh environments,” Ashley said. And with that she reached underneath her vest and pulled out a long, serrated hunting knife.

  I threw my hands up and closed my eye
s. “First, a knife is not going to help you against a storm, and second,” I said, snapping my eyes open, “why do you even have that thing?”

  Ashley didn’t have time to answer me because her mother had grabbed her arm. “You are not going after him. I forbid it.”

  “God, you just can’t stop, can you?” Ashley said, yanking her arm away, sending her mother tottering back on her heels into the wall. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. Not anymore.”

  One job. Rhonda had given me one job. Keep everyone calm … and together. Fine, two jobs. I swear, this entire group was going to knock itself off, and I’d be left trying to explain what happened. Yup, that’s me. Erica Doom.

  I reached for Ashley’s arm as she stomped by. I needed to try one more time—

  “Just let her go if she wants to!” Julie shouted. “We need to get Kenny inside.”

  Ronnie stumbled back onto the porch. “Stop! Ashley! Don’t do this! You’re too good for him.”

  Ashley stopped at the bottom of the porch steps and shot a look over her shoulder. “Go back inside, Mom. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

  “Whoa,” I called out, rocking back on my heels. “Easy. She’s still your mother.” They weren’t exactly words that I ever expected to come out of my mouth, but it kind of felt like they needed saying. Maybe it was because I couldn’t stop worrying about my own mother.

  I hadn’t realized how deep the snow was until I saw Ashley step into it, trying to awkwardly stomp away.

  “At least follow his prints!” I shouted after her. She stopped and changed direction. Yup, prized trophy hunter my a—

  “Come on!” Julie snapped. “She’s made her choice.”

  “Okay, okay.”

  After a whole bunch of struggling, we managed to get Kenny onto the couch in the living room. I wasn’t entirely convinced we should be moving him, but leaving him out in the storm wasn’t an option.

  I set a few lanterns on the table then found another blanket for Kenny. Julie was already on the phone with 911. I knew talking to them wouldn’t get help out here any faster, but they could at least tell us what we could do for Kenny. This day … this night … it felt like a car rolling for the edge of a cliff—a car that I was trying to hold back with my bare hands. Didn’t take a genius to figure out how that would end.

  A moment later, I pulled out my phone and swiped the screen to text Rhonda again. I hesitated a moment, biting my lip. Maybe I should try calling first? I needed to impress upon her th—

  Just then my phone buzzed in my hands, making me flip it into the air.

  I might have screamed a little too.

  Thankfully, I caught it before it hit the floor.

  “Sorry everyone. Sorry. I was just—it’s the police.” I turned and walked toward the kitchen as I brought my phone to my ear. “Rhon—”

  “Erica, thank God. When you didn’t answer, I thought maybe I was too late.”

  “Too late?” I stopped walking and looked over my shoulder. Yup, everyone was staring at me. I lowered my voice and resumed my walk into the darkness of the kitchen. “What are you—never mind, listen things are going south. I think one of the guests has a concussion. Actually I know he has a concussion. He’s out cold. And another guest took off into the storm, and now his girlfriend has gone after him, and—”

  Rhonda let out a growl of frustration. “Okay, I’m on it. But you listen to me. You need to get out of there.”

  I blinked. “What are you talking about? I’m trying to keep people from leaving. The one guy doesn’t even have a winter j—”

  “That’s really bad, and I’m doing everything in my power to get help out to you, not that it’s doing much good, but you’ve got bigger problems.”

  I did not like the way that sounded at all. “What could possibly be worse than a dead body on the floor, a man with a head injury, and two people potentially lost in a snow storm?” But even as I was saying the words, a big part of me was pretty sure I didn’t want to know the answer to that question.

  “They may be safer than you are at the moment.”

  I peeked over my shoulder. “Rhonda, you’re kind of freaking me out right now.”

  “Good,” she snapped. “You need to get out of there. Take the kid. Go to the twins’. Go anywhere.”

  I walked farther into the kitchen. “Why?”

  “Okay, well, I don’t want to upset you, but…”

  “Rhonda.”

  “I think you may be stuck on the island with a serial killer.”

  Chapter Twenty-three

  “What did you just say?”

  “It’s kind of a long story,” Rhonda said, words tumbling through my phone. “And I’m not sure how much time you have. Just go. I’ll fill you in on everything when you’re somewhere safe.”

  “That is not going to happen,” I said, wrapping an arm tightly around my waist. “You tell me what’s going on. Right now.”

  Rhonda growled in frustration again. Louder this time. “Why will nobody do what I say? I have a uniform!”

  “Rhonda.”

  She scoffed. “Fine, so, since I last talked to you, I’ve been going back and forth with Lake Patrol about trying to get someone to go over to the island, but they were all like It’s suicide. No boat’s going on that lake now. We can’t risk our people for a dead body. Blah. Blah. Blah. So I tried to explain to them about the generator, and the movie I saw last week with the killer who—”

  I lost focus of her words for a few moments as a little bit of relief sprinkled over me. I knew what was going here. Rhonda had done exactly what she had warned me not to do—get carried away. Some people just shouldn’t be allowed to watch movies.

  “… so after the donut, I calmed down and decided I needed to go talk to someone in person, but, you know, once I got in the jeep, it occurred to me that maybe I should swing by the marina to see if the bodyguard you said had left the island in Ted’s boat had shown up yet. I mean, it’s not like Lake Patrol is going to give me any updates. They’re so This is our jurisdiction and…”

  I lost focus again as I rubbed a hand over my face. As much as I liked Rhonda, and I really, really did—when she wasn’t setting my boyfriend up with her cousin—I was seriously hoping that Freddie had found someone else to talk to. Grady, ideally. I mean, I could only imagine what Lake Patrol thought when Rhonda got them on the phone talking about movies with knife-wielding—a snapshot of Ashley’s serrated blade popped up in my mind, but I quashed it pretty quick—serial killers. The real danger, right now, was the storm … and the paranoia.

  “So the boat wasn’t there and—”

  “Oh no,” I said, snapping back into the moment. “I mean, he was kind of a scary dude.” And he kind of had the look of a man who could survive underwater for a year or two before rising up out of the lake to kill us all—which was a totally uncharitable thought to be having given the circumstances. “But nobody should be out on the water tonight. I hope he’s okay.”

  “Yeah, well, you just hang onto your hope there for a minute until you hear the rest.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Rhonda, can you please just tell me what it is you’re trying to say. I don’t need all the details. Can you just skip to the—”

  “Serial killer part?”

  I dropped my hand. “That would be great.”

  “Okay.” I heard her take a breath. “Erica?”

  “Yes?”

  “Have you ever heard of the dark web?”

  I threw my head back, smacking it against the wall. “What?”

  “You know, the side of the Internet that you can’t access with regular search engines? It’s like a hidden part where all the illegal stuff happens. But you need a special browser or something to use it. I heard you can download it, but—”

  A small sound escaped my throat. But I knew interrupting would just make it worse. She needed to tell the whole story. I had to let her. Otherwise we’d all die of old age before she w
as through.

  “Okay, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself,” Rhonda said. “Let’s back up.”

  I threw my hand in the air for no one to see … except all the people once again looking at me from the common room.

  “Okay, so, I went to the marina. There’s no boat. So I decide I should probably check in with Ted. See if he had heard anything. And nope, he hadn’t, but he tells me this bodyguard of yours gave him a bad feeling—not enough so that he wouldn’t rent him the boat. I mean, he was paying in cash, so—”

  “Rhonda, please, I’m begging you…”

  “Right. Sorry. I’m really freaked out, and the longer I talk to you, the more freaked out I get because you need to get going! The killer could be on your porch right now looking at you through the window, but you can’t see him because—”

  “What the fricking hell, Rhonda?”

  “Right. Anyway, Ted took a photocopy of his driver’s license, so I decided to do some checking and…”

  I pushed myself off the wall with my foot. Driver’s license. I could feel my panic level creeping back up again. “And?”

  Rhonda made a scared humming noise before saying, “And it was a fake.”

  Okay, my heart really didn’t like the sound of that, given the way it was banging against my ribcage … probably trying to escape. “Having a fake ID doesn’t make you a serial killer,” I said, over the thumbnail I was suddenly chewing. At least I hoped it didn’t. What with Julie—or whoever she really was—in the other room.

  “I know that! Don’t you think I know that?” She took a noisy breath. “Sorry. Sorry. We’re getting to the part where—” Suddenly she cut herself off with a surprised laugh. “My hands are shaking. They haven’t done that since I was in training, and—”

  “Rhonda! What are you talking about?”

  “Amos.”

  “Amos?”

  “The new kid at the station? You’ve met him. He’s the one who nearly got fired for helping Shelley upload her booking photo to Hot Mugs and Jugs when we took her in that one time for—”

  I tried to yell something, but I think it came out more as an angry stream of barks.

  “I’m sorry! I’m babbling. I know I’m babbling! The sugar from that donut probably didn’t help,” she said, sounding more and more freaked out, which was not helping my level of panic one bit. “So, anyway, Amos saw the guy’s picture on the driver’s license and he ID’d him right away. That scar is pretty distinctive.”